July 12 - Onward Back to Turkey
I woke up early, refreshed in our Akhaltsikhe guesthouse room. No breakfast was provided, so I went out looking for food. I passed several guest houses, so we probably need not have taken the first option last night, but we were tired. Passing a gasoline station of the same brand where we purchased gas in Tbilisi, which had 92 octane as regular, convinced me that our prior auto problems were caused by the incorrect gasoline. I quickly found a large food market that was open at 7:00 am on Sunday. It had a large selection of unidentified process meats and one meter long bags of spaghetti. I purchased some bananas, orange juice, bread, cheese, apricots, yogurt, a chocolate bar and 6 liters of water.
Back in the room we could look out over the square, the abandoned rail track and the police station. At the latter they were having the morning line up while we ate breakfast. Our hosts, seemingly a mother and three kids, two teenagers, spoke virtually no English, but were very interested in our trip.
After breakfast we walked up to the old town, Rabati. It is on a hill on the north side of the Potskhovi River. It is not a quant or cute area, but a living residential neighborhood. Just about every house has a small vineyard or grapevine. While many of the houses (seemingly most were traditional Georgian, darbazebi) looked sort of run down, virtually all had satellite dishes and many had large expensive European cars parked outside. The streets, most of which are not more than alleys, are not marked and are all unpaved. The rabati is multi-cultural. It has an Armenian and Catholic church, each, and a synagogue. We set out to find the latter and quickly got lost in the tangle of streets. We saw a large group emerge from an alley and they turned out to be an Israeli group that had just visited the synagogue. As we proceeded up the alley, we were greeted by a couple calling out shalom. They urged us into their yard which had a grapevine, fruit trees and chickens. Outside it had a large pot boiling with some type of fruit in it. They gave us wine and some type of processed fruit with lots of toasts.
We finally found the synagogue, and although an interior door was open, it was locked on the outside and no one came to the door.
We walked back down the hill and took off for the Saphara Monastery. This is one of the most beautiful sites in the region, but the signs to get to its access road were surprisingly difficult to find and follow. The directions said that it was 13 km off the main road and the road leading to it is an unpaved national highway. We went about 1km up a paved road through a small village and then turned onto a dirt road. This was much more a byway than a highway. It was rocky, frequently deeply rutted and oftentimes was carved out of the side of a cliff. At times it was very steep and I spent a large amount of time in 1st gear. I had serious doubts and worries about whether the car would make it up the hill and feared that I would blow out the engine or at least a tire.
However the trip was very scenic and we finally made it there. Georgian monks seem to work really hard to find the most out of the way places to site their monasteries. This one dated to the 9th century and was greatly expanded in the 13th century to include a fortress by the Jakeli family, the same people who built the Akhaltsikhe Castle. The complex contains several churches, the largest of which, St, Saba's has many frescos. It is still a working monastery with a number of monks walking and driving around.
We rolled back down the hill and into town, where we filled up on cheap Georgian gasoline and headed south to Turkey. We passed through Vale and several very small towns, but did not find a suitable place for our picnic lunch and wine. Just before the border we stopped at a gas station and rest stop. In addition to lots of liquor, it had a picnic table and two attentive dogs, who helped us finish off our bread. Used the restrooms and as we were looking to use up some of our remaining Georgian money, the owner/manager came over and insisted that we have two free cold waters. We ultimately purchased some ice cream sandwiches, a fruit drink and 6 more liters of water.
The border crossing went very smoothly, albeit slowly. This is a rural area and it is a small crossing post. There were not many travelers there. Georgian immigration stared intently at our paperwork for what seemed an eternity, but then stamped us and waved us through. Turkish immigration took a bit longer but there, too, we were ultimately waved through. At Customs there was a bit of shoving and line-cutting. A group of what seemed to be laborers who were traveling in an SUV were all carrying duty-free bags from Georgia. They cut ahead of me, but then had all their liquor confiscated. We had to open up the car, but the inspector made a cursory inspection and gave us a stamp, (unlike when we entered the last time, when a bar code was affixed to our car) to get through the final gate. In total it took about 1.5 hours.
We gained back an hour in time, so rather than stay in one of the smaller towns we were passing through, we set out for Kars, for what I thought would be about a two hour drive. The highway was usually pretty good and at times excellent. However there were stretches that deterioated to gravel. We also were going through some very empty and rugged country. Twice we climbed to pass over 7500ft. Usually the only signs of civilization we saw were nomad people herding their animals and their tent sites. Then my digestive problem developed again. One time as I was scrambling off the side of the road for an emergency stop, I almost slid down a cliff. Another time when I stopped there was a shepherd who seemed to look at me askance. His cows then started coming over to me as I was relieving myself and I feared that there would be a confrontation; but the cows backed off and the shepherd walked away.
We made it to Kars in the early evening and after unsuccessfully bargaining for a desired price at our first choice, we settled into the Hotel Konak for two nights, where they served us tea and we watched Aljezerra International report on the Greek debt crisis.
I woke up early, refreshed in our Akhaltsikhe guesthouse room. No breakfast was provided, so I went out looking for food. I passed several guest houses, so we probably need not have taken the first option last night, but we were tired. Passing a gasoline station of the same brand where we purchased gas in Tbilisi, which had 92 octane as regular, convinced me that our prior auto problems were caused by the incorrect gasoline. I quickly found a large food market that was open at 7:00 am on Sunday. It had a large selection of unidentified process meats and one meter long bags of spaghetti. I purchased some bananas, orange juice, bread, cheese, apricots, yogurt, a chocolate bar and 6 liters of water.
Back in the room we could look out over the square, the abandoned rail track and the police station. At the latter they were having the morning line up while we ate breakfast. Our hosts, seemingly a mother and three kids, two teenagers, spoke virtually no English, but were very interested in our trip.
After breakfast we walked up to the old town, Rabati. It is on a hill on the north side of the Potskhovi River. It is not a quant or cute area, but a living residential neighborhood. Just about every house has a small vineyard or grapevine. While many of the houses (seemingly most were traditional Georgian, darbazebi) looked sort of run down, virtually all had satellite dishes and many had large expensive European cars parked outside. The streets, most of which are not more than alleys, are not marked and are all unpaved. The rabati is multi-cultural. It has an Armenian and Catholic church, each, and a synagogue. We set out to find the latter and quickly got lost in the tangle of streets. We saw a large group emerge from an alley and they turned out to be an Israeli group that had just visited the synagogue. As we proceeded up the alley, we were greeted by a couple calling out shalom. They urged us into their yard which had a grapevine, fruit trees and chickens. Outside it had a large pot boiling with some type of fruit in it. They gave us wine and some type of processed fruit with lots of toasts.
We finally found the synagogue, and although an interior door was open, it was locked on the outside and no one came to the door.
We walked back down the hill and took off for the Saphara Monastery. This is one of the most beautiful sites in the region, but the signs to get to its access road were surprisingly difficult to find and follow. The directions said that it was 13 km off the main road and the road leading to it is an unpaved national highway. We went about 1km up a paved road through a small village and then turned onto a dirt road. This was much more a byway than a highway. It was rocky, frequently deeply rutted and oftentimes was carved out of the side of a cliff. At times it was very steep and I spent a large amount of time in 1st gear. I had serious doubts and worries about whether the car would make it up the hill and feared that I would blow out the engine or at least a tire.
However the trip was very scenic and we finally made it there. Georgian monks seem to work really hard to find the most out of the way places to site their monasteries. This one dated to the 9th century and was greatly expanded in the 13th century to include a fortress by the Jakeli family, the same people who built the Akhaltsikhe Castle. The complex contains several churches, the largest of which, St, Saba's has many frescos. It is still a working monastery with a number of monks walking and driving around.
We rolled back down the hill and into town, where we filled up on cheap Georgian gasoline and headed south to Turkey. We passed through Vale and several very small towns, but did not find a suitable place for our picnic lunch and wine. Just before the border we stopped at a gas station and rest stop. In addition to lots of liquor, it had a picnic table and two attentive dogs, who helped us finish off our bread. Used the restrooms and as we were looking to use up some of our remaining Georgian money, the owner/manager came over and insisted that we have two free cold waters. We ultimately purchased some ice cream sandwiches, a fruit drink and 6 more liters of water.
The border crossing went very smoothly, albeit slowly. This is a rural area and it is a small crossing post. There were not many travelers there. Georgian immigration stared intently at our paperwork for what seemed an eternity, but then stamped us and waved us through. Turkish immigration took a bit longer but there, too, we were ultimately waved through. At Customs there was a bit of shoving and line-cutting. A group of what seemed to be laborers who were traveling in an SUV were all carrying duty-free bags from Georgia. They cut ahead of me, but then had all their liquor confiscated. We had to open up the car, but the inspector made a cursory inspection and gave us a stamp, (unlike when we entered the last time, when a bar code was affixed to our car) to get through the final gate. In total it took about 1.5 hours.
We gained back an hour in time, so rather than stay in one of the smaller towns we were passing through, we set out for Kars, for what I thought would be about a two hour drive. The highway was usually pretty good and at times excellent. However there were stretches that deterioated to gravel. We also were going through some very empty and rugged country. Twice we climbed to pass over 7500ft. Usually the only signs of civilization we saw were nomad people herding their animals and their tent sites. Then my digestive problem developed again. One time as I was scrambling off the side of the road for an emergency stop, I almost slid down a cliff. Another time when I stopped there was a shepherd who seemed to look at me askance. His cows then started coming over to me as I was relieving myself and I feared that there would be a confrontation; but the cows backed off and the shepherd walked away.
We made it to Kars in the early evening and after unsuccessfully bargaining for a desired price at our first choice, we settled into the Hotel Konak for two nights, where they served us tea and we watched Aljezerra International report on the Greek debt crisis.
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